Here is an update of what my month of July looked like; first of all my family visited me in Monchengladbach (Mom, Dad and Aunts and Uncles from Germany) they all attended their first football game and stayed another day or two to spend some time together and watch the World Cup together. Here is a group picture of us.
Following my family’s visit, I flew to Valladolid, Spain where I needed to take the train to Pamplona to meet up with my teammates and friends from Canada. The plan we had long established was to participate in the world famous San Fermin festival and the “Running of the Bulls”. Unfortunately, because my flight was delayed I couldn’t catch any trains to take to me Pamplona in time to run with the bulls the next morning. Instead I had to take a complicated network of bus trips to get me to Pamplona at like 130am so I could get up at 6am to run with the bulls the next morning.
“Running with the bulls” is a morning event that happens every day for a week in Pamplona during the month of July. The festival of San Fermin draws in thousands upon thousands of tourists each year to attempt the running of the bulls or watch the running. The city is literally overrun with people and there are virtually no places to sleep so we as a group spent two nights sleeping in the city parks. The city is a giant party and people are littered everywhere. I don’t exaggerate when I say littered; people are quite literally strewn everywhere.
Our group ran on July 13th and this was the second last running of the bulls for 2010, and the festival closed on July 14th. Some people will say that what we did was quite crazy and I have to agree with them; it was an unbelievable rush, a dangerous rush but an amazing one. Those who know me well understand that I am little bit of an adrenaline junkie and I look for these kinds of moments. This is not to say I would do the run again; I don’t see myself ever doing it again, I understand the danger I put myself into and I am glad I did it but I don’t think I will do it again. I won’t say never again but probably not.
After being in Pamplona, running with the bulls, partying for two days, sleeping in the park, attending the bull fights this is what I looked like arriving in Barcelona. It's not a pretty sight but I think it was pretty hilarious and right on par with what the experience was like.
There isn’t much to say but that’s what Pamplona, the San Fermin Festival and putting your life on the line will do to you.
We were in Barcelona for three days and got to enjoy the sights, the nightlife and all the wonderful things that Barcelona has to offer. Here are a couple pictures from that leg of the trip.
Following Barcelona, I headed to Interlaken, Switzerland with my friends that were visiting from high school. Interlaken in my opinion is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been too. It is a small village located in the middle of a mountain range in between two lakes in the Swiss Alps.
Interlaken is one of the extreme sport capitals of the world and it really lives up to the hype, think of any extreme sport and there is a high likelihood that you can do it there. Naturally being the adrenaline junkies that we all are we decided to do some canyoning. Canyoning is a combination of rock climbing, cliff jumping, rappelling and a whole lot of awesome! Instead of explaining further here are some pictures.
The next day my friends from Canada had to head home but my teammates were coming to join me for another day. Once they arrived we undertook a big climb, we decided to hike one of the many mountains at our disposure, and we climbed a 2400meter or almost 8000foot peak. We all started together but some of us wanted to be a little more adventurous and eventually split into smaller groups, it turned out that we found a little lake at 2000meters and took a swim. It was an unreal experience to take a swim so high up looking at these unbelievable mountains. Check the pictures.
That same day was when I left the group and headed to Vienna. My plan was to see Budapest and Prague before my girlfriend arrived in Frankfurt three days later. I know that its not enough time to see either of those cities in one day but I thought it would be a good way to spend my time since I had a train pass. I saw many of the big sights in those cities and would love to go back one day to see more of the city. Here are some pictures.
My girlfriend was in Europe for two weeks and we saw Bordeaux, France; San Sebastian and Barcelona, Spain; Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monchengladbach and finally Frankfurt, Germany. Here are some pictures from our trip.
All those adventures and places concluded my month long travel odyssey throughout Europe. Upon my return to Gladbach, it was back to business and we needed a few more games to close out the Championship.
This weekend we played our second to last game; it was against Lubeck and we won 49-7 to clinch the Championship. We were on a bus trip so it was be a good party on the way home. Here is a picture of my roommate Alan and I with Petra our adoptive mother as well as a team championship picture we took after the game.
The German Football League has put into effect a new clause that the first place team from the GFL2 automatically moves up to the GFL without having to play a relegation game. This has freed up about three to four more weeks of available travel time before I go back to Canada. Here is what we have planned. Fly to Greece for one week with stops in Athens, the island of Ios and Santorini. We then return back to Gladbach for two days and then fly off to London, Dublin and Stockholm for about three days each. We get back from that leg of the trip and the next day we head off to Munich for the world famous Oktoberfest to finish off our European football and travelling journey. A week later I will be coming back to Canada.
One of the reasons that I have been absent as of late from the blog is because I am trying to get myself organized for what work and what else I would like to do as soon as I get home to Ottawa. I am going through the same struggle that many people my age are dealing with, the ever-troubling question of “What to do with your life?”. I still don’t have an answer so the process is ongoing…
In my last month here in Germany, I will try to update you as much as possible about the little football that we have left as well as the travels that we have planned. Just like in July I will do my best but no guarantees. Twitter/Facebook will probably have the most updates. Thanks for checking out the blog.
G
